THAILAND: A court has thrown out defamation charges brought against 14 migrant workers by their former employer, a poultry farm they had accused of labour and human rights violations.

Thammakaset said it had suffered losses after the workers filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission. The firm has already been ordered to pay the workers compensation.

Bangkok’s Don Muang magistrates’ court ruled that the workers’ claims — including that they had been forced to do 20-hour days — were made in good faith and based on facts.

NORTHERN IRELAND: Nationalist and unionist politicians jointly condemned street violence in Derry today.

Police said that six shots had been fired at officers, but none were injured. “Around 16 petrol bombs and five paint bombs were thrown,” said Chief Inspector Neil Beck.

“There must be a strong, clear and united voice against those who would engage in such disgraceful violence,” said the joint statement issued by Sinn Fein, the Democratic Unionist Party and the smaller Ulster Unionists, SDLP and Alliance parties.

TURKEY: Five mine bosses were sentenced today to up to 22 years in prison for their role in a 2014 disaster that killed 301 workers.

The deaths were caused by a fire that swept through a mine in the town of Soma. It was Turkey’s worst industrial disaster.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now president, described the disaster at the time as mineworkers’ “destiny.”

GREECE: Officials at the European Commission said today that it would keep a close eye on Greece once the country’s bailout programme ends in August to ensure that ministers press on with austerity measures.

For most of the past decade, the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have been giving Greece loans to pay back other loans — originally borrowed from private banks but now held by European governments — under strict austerity conditions.

Successive Greek governments have made deep cuts and sweeping privatisations, and unemployment now stands at over 20 per cent.